Wellman screams for ice cream

Randy and Jennie Rodgers own and operate Cilino’s Italian Restaurant in Wellman.

Business was good at the restaurant, but the couple wanted to find a way to bring more people into downtown Wellman.

“We weren’t seeing anybody downtown — kids, teenagers, nobody from Mid-Prairie High School,” Jennie said. “We’ve never seen a teenager down here in our life.”

In March 2020, they began brainstorming and came up with the idea of opening an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in the other half of their building — a former newspaper office.

“We thought that downtown needed something family friendly,” Jennie said. “We wanted to have a place where kids could come without their parents.

“We thought this might bring people out of the woodwork and have another business here to somehow wake up Wellman a little bit.”

They already had one of the key pieces they needed.

“We already had the soda fountain,” Randy said. “The biggest thing was getting it working again and getting all the old parts that weren’t on it any more.

“This soda fountain has been in Wellman since the 1940s, from what we can gather.”

After getting the soda fountain refurbished and the space remodeled, they opened the doors of The Parlor on July 1.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Randy said. “I know what the restaurant does, but I didn’t know what this would do.”

The response from the community exceeded their expectations. They had 500 punch cards printed and ran out of them in 14 days.

Initially, they had one shipment of ice cream scheduled to be delivered each week. They quickly realized they needed more.

“We had four shipments the first week and three shipments the second week,” Randy said. “It’s been two shipments every week, but we have to stuff every open spot that we have.

“We will never have freezer burn on the ice cream. It doesn’t stay here.”

The parlor serves up hard scoop and soft serve ice cream, old fashioned malts and milkshakes, as well as adult milkshakes they call “proofs,” which are milkshakes with alcohol.

With the refurbished soda fountain, they also are able to serve old-fashioned sodas, made by combining syrup and carbonated water.

All of the prices are cash-only flat dollar amounts, with tax included, to make it easier for kids to pay.

The Parlor has achieved what the couple had initially said was their goal.

“I’ve seen more teenagers and more kids that I didn’t even know were around here,” Randy said. “I had no idea there were so many of them. They’re in daily.”

Word is spreading as well. A number of car clubs have “discovered” The Parlor and included it on their stops.

Future plans include adding locally made baked goods to the menu.

“We might look at having people be able to come in and have coffee and a cinnamon roll in the morning,” Jennie said.

The Parlor is currently open 1-9 p.m. seven days a week. That will change when school starts again in late August.

“We’ll open after school gets out,” Randy said. “We’re not sure if we’ll stay at seven days a week year-round.”